and it makes the news! And she’s a Hero!
Picture (thanks Eva A, Ann S, Barbara B, Jennifer N, Robyn C, Julinda A, Lori F, Jessica D, Maria R, Yvette Y, and last but not least, Jessica G!)
China’s Breastfeeding Hero
Chengdu, China - A Chinese policewoman is contributing to the country’s massive earthquake relief effort in a very personal way - by breastfeeding eight babies.
A newspaper in Chengdu, the capital of quake-hit Sichuan province, devoted a special page to the 29-year-old woman, calling her a “hero”.
The woman from the quake-ravaged town of Jiangyou has just had a child herself, the Western Urban Daily said.
She is nursing the children of three women who were left homeless by the quake and are too traumatised to give milk, as well as five orphans, the report said.
The babies who lost their parents have been put in an orphanage which does not have powdered milk, it said.
Yet, REALLY when you think about it, isn’t the fact that it’s NEWS the real story here? In times of disaster, when babies are orphaned, what have women always done? They’ve stepped in and nursed the babies, of course. The World Health Organization recommends Breastfeeding, first; pumping milk, second; using donated milk, third; formula, fourth. They don’t come right out and say it, but the ‘donated milk’ thing is a polite way of saying another mother steps up and feeds the baby (only in industrialized countries and optimal conditions would you have milk banks, refrigeration, and bottles) So isn’t it weird that it’s so uncommon that it’s considered newsworthy? And Globallynewsworthy at that? Doesn’t it say a LOT about our culture that we find it so amazing? The Heroine says herself “I didn’t think of it much, it’s a mother’s reaction” and later “I think what I did was normal…this was a small thing, not worth mentioning.”
Although that’s true, on the face of it, Jiang Xiaoojuan, like all mothers who have fed babies who are not their own, and all mothers who have gathered up orphans and helped them survive, and all mothers who have stepped up and mothered during horrible disasters, IS a hero. And she puts a lovely face on it, she stepped in and fed 9 small babies and ANYTIME the commonplace acts of motherhood are elevated to heroism in the news we should applaud. Here, Here!
Love,
Heather
